Vote For WordCamp New York Logo

The voting booth has opened to choose the WordCamp NYC logo. During the month of August, all sorts of entries were entered in the contest but only one of them will be used as the official logo. You can view all the entries here. Voting ends on September 7th at 5PM EST. My original idea that I was going to enter into the contest was a cross between entry 22 and 26. But, I never got around to creating the design. While there are quite a few cool designs on the page, I decide to stick with entry 23.

A late entry by Ozh which is not on the list to vote for but I’d love to buy as a T-Shirt.

Who is Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler is a WordPress guy in the buckeye state. Contributing writer for WPTavern. Have been writing about WordPress since 2007. Host of the WordPress Weekly Podcast.

By comparison… here are the sponsorship prices for other upcoming WordCamps in some pretty web markets:

WordCamp Portland
Sponsorships are $250, $500 and $1000

WordCamp Seattle
Sponsorships are $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, $2000

WordCamp Los Angeles
Sponsorships are $100, $250, $500, $1000, $2000

WordCamp New York
Sponsorships for individuals are $250, $500
Sponsorships for businesses are $1000, $2000, $5000, $7500, $10000

I know the New York event is going to be a good one. But at those prices good luck finding actual WordPress related businesses that can afford the sponsorships. Most have been priced out of the market, which is a shame given it’s a WordPress related event.

Jeff, you plan on signing WordPress Weekly on as the Platinum sponsor for WordCamp New York?

@Carl Hancock – Wow, if I could only make 10,000 I’d be one lucky mofo. WPTavern.com barely makes enough money for the cheapest sponsorship lol. Which means I won’t be signing up. Those are indeed some steep prices. Maybe Jane or someone organizing the event will stop by and explain why the high prices. Perhaps its just a test to see if anyone buys?

I voted for 17. I’m not really sure why #2 is doing so well, seems kind of large and bulky to me. Not very clean like most WP logos, but to each his own I guess.

The sponsorship packages are higher than most WordCamps, but remember this is the largest city in the US. There may not be many WordPress specific sponsors, but I’m sure there are plenty of companies in NYC willing to buy those up.

I liked 33 (and 32, but I voted for the former) because they’d look pretty sweet on a T-Shirt or a badge, and the pictoral/street map theme is a nice departure from the large skyline/Statue of Liberty concepts a lot of the (very nicely done) other entries aim for.

@Brad – Los Angeles and Chicago and the 2nd and 3rd largest cities in the United States and the sponsorship packages for NYC are orders of magnitude higher than the sponsorships for LA or Chicago.

The single largest expense when looking at hosting an event like this is most likely going to be venue, I know i’ve looked into hosting one locally, and in this case WNET.ORG is sponsoring the event and providing the venue. So if the venue is covered… why the need for such steep sponsorship packages?

Are speakers being compensated and all their travel arrangements being covered? I know some WordCamps don’t do this and the speakers volunteer so that could be one reason.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt that the event could be expensive… just curious what’s going on at this event that makes it so much more expensive to sign up as a sponsor.

There is probably some very good reasons, just don’t know them from looking at the site.

My favorites were 12 (voted for), 10, 31, and 34. And several of the others were quite good, too. I’m not terribly fond of #2, personally. The Statue of Liberty looks squashed, and the overall design just doesn’t have very good visual balance.

@Carl Hancock – If you compare it to San Francisco sponsorship levels, they are in line (for the corporate levels). We’re looking to make NYC comparable to the SF event, but with more of a developer focus. Also, the sponsorship levels were set before we found a venue sponsor. WNET is a platinum sponsor for donating the venue.

NYC has a lot of big media companies running WP… some of the biggest installations around, in fact… which is why the levels go up so high. Offering sponsorships at the lower business levels of 1-2K, with 250/500 for consultants and individuals is in the same range as the other WCs you mention, so I’m not sure why you think sponsoring the NYC event would be unaffordable. We put a lot of thought into how much sponsorships should be based on the current economy in our sector (even the descriptions of the levels show this… costs one Starbucks drink per week, etc).

If no sponsorships come in above $2000, that’s fine, and we’ll play it close to the belt financially like most WordCamps, and we’ll accept the generosity of speakers paying for their own travel, etc. If we raise more money, though, and can give something to the speakers to help cover costs, can provide better food during the 2-day event, throw an after-party, etc., why would you be opposed to that? The point of sponsorships is to keep ticket prices low for the attendees.

And since I’m one of the organizers, you can rest assured that there will be no gratuitous sponsor presentations, etc. Anyone getting up on stage will be talking about something WordPress-related/focused. I’ve been to several WCs that were more like BlogCamps or SocialMediaCamps, including one where a competing CMS that had sponsored the event got up on stage to demo their product to a captive audience, and I was disappointed. Regardless of how much money we wind up with to spend on the event, the content will ALL be WordPress-centric.

In any case, this is not a for-profit event. NYC is just crazy expensive when it comes to food, wifi, security, insurance, services, etc., and we would like to have those things (and in some cases, the venue requires us to have those things). If we have enough money to pay for everything we need and then some, we can help pay for travel for speakers and there should be extra-awesome food, shwag, or an open bar at some point. If we don’t, people may have to go out for lunch and drinks on their own dime and visitng speakers will cover their own travel expenses. Basically, if we have it, we’ll spend it, and if we don’t, we’ll go without.

We believe in being open about finances, and after the event is over we’ll post a summary on the site of how the costs broke down and how many of each level of sponsorship we had. I think this will be helpful to other WordCamps as well, to help with planning their event.

One thing to note is that I know a number of WordCamps that have come up short financially because they didn’t get enough sponsors, and they wound up paying for things out of their own pockets. That kind of thing doesn’t get publicity, but it’s the reason I wanted us to shoot for a wide range of sponsor levels, including high ones, to avoid getting into that situation.